Opinion of this quote about #populism <3...

[Battista Minola 1616]

B A S E D

Seriously, I think I have argued similar things for a relatively long time.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Populism pretty clearly refers to any reactionary movement to preserve those social arrangements which empower the traditional working and middle classes, against social/economic innovations which threaten those arrangements. One would expect the pope of all people to understand this - though perhaps not this pope!

I can't quite understand if you are ironic, but if you aren't:
That's exactly the completely meaningless and culture-war-ified definition of populism the Pope is complaining about!

[Battista Minola 1616]

Maybe it has some more importance in Europe?

My impression was that a lot of the political parts of the encyclical seemed specifically informed by what's going on with the Italian center-right. §§86 and 125 also seem like they're directed at Lega in particular rather than at the global #populist right more generally. Popes, even post-1870 Popes, adopting Italy as their main reference point when it comes to assessing world politics is a long and proud tradition, of course. Perhaps Antonio or Battista Minola would be able to say more about this.

Of cooooooooourse.

I am not sure about §86, but §125 (developed regions and poorer regions of countries) reads 100% as a pot shot at Lega.

Also, going back to §156, there is certainly a tendency in the discourse to use "populist" to basically mean "Lega/FdI" (and European allies) which irks me a whole lot. I don't think I have heard the word applied even to M5S in some time... wonder why. And I remember when Conte (first Cabinet) was "accused" of being a populist, and so in his inaugural discourse he rebutted rivendicating the word populism as good, and that made some news.

By the way: it's quite some time that my usual reaction to all of this is "Lega populist my ass - have you seen the flat tax? "

[Battista Minola 1616]

Maybe it has some more importance in Europe?

My impression was that a lot of the political parts of the encyclical seemed specifically informed by what's going on with the Italian center-right. §§86 and 125 also seem like they're directed at Lega in particular rather than at the global #populist right more generally. Popes, even post-1870 Popes, adopting Italy as their main reference point when it comes to assessing world politics is a long and proud tradition, of course. Perhaps Antonio or Battista Minola would be able to say more about this.

Almost all the rhetoric against the yellow-green government back in its days was painting is as "the government of the populists".

THAT
THAT'S THE FREAKING POINT OF ALL OF THIS

By the way: it's quite some time that my usual reaction to all of this is "Lega populist my ass - have you seen the flat tax? "

Oh God thank you for saying that.

The flat tax is the most pro-elite, anti-populist political idea currently being floated in Italy. It's a f**king disgrace that Salvini was able to sell it as a reform for the little guy and it says some scary things about the idiocy of Italian political discourse.

Entirely correct. The flat tax is turbo voodooo economics, it's more right-wing than FI's proposal, and by the way one must be pretty dumb not to pick up how Lega rhetoric says "small business owners" or "entrepreneurs" much more than "workers" lmao. Not to mention that it's not a coincidence that Lega's geographic base is in the wealthiest part of Italy in my opinion.